1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector having elastic terminals with contacts located at the same level.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional electrical connector to be connected to two circuit boards includes a male base 10, a plurality of male terminals 17, a female base 23, a plurality of female terminals 28. The male base 10 has a central portion 11 and a peripheral portion 12. The central portion 11 and the peripheral portion 12 form two concave portions 13. The peripheral portion 12 has separately disposed male terminal mounting slots 14. Two sides of the central portion 11 have separately disposed male terminal moving slots 15.
The male terminals 17 are assembled on the male base 10 and are formed by pressing a metal sheet. Each male terminal 17 includes an elastic arm 18, a fixing portion 21 and a pin portion 20. The elastic arm 18 is curved from bottom to top and may be elastically moved in the male terminal moving slot 15. The elastic arm 18 has a contact 19 projecting over the male terminal moving slot 15. The fixing portion 21 extending from bottom to top is inserted into and thus fixed in the male terminal mounting slot 14. The pin portion 20 is perpendicular to the fixing portion and extends out of the male base 10 horizontally.
The female base 23 has a concave portion 24 at a middle part thereof and a plurality of separately disposed female terminal slots 25 at two sides thereof. When the female base 23 and the male base 10 are assembled, two sides of the female base 23 are fit with the two concave portions 13 of the male base 10, ad the central portion 11 of the male base is fit with the concave portion 24 at the middle of the female base 23.
The female terminals 28 are assembled in the female terminal slots 25 of the female base 23. Each female terminal 28 is formed, by bending a metal sheet, to include a fixing portion 29, a contact sheet 30 and a pin portion 31. The fixing portion 29 is fixed in the female terminal slot 25. The contact sheet 30 is connected to one end of the fixing portion 29 and is stacked with the fixing portion 29. The pin portion 31 is connected to the other end of the fixing portion 29 and extends out of the female base 23 horizontally.
As shown in FIG. 2, after the female base 23 is connected to the male base 10, the contact 19 of the male terminal 17 elastically contacts the contact sheet 30 of the female terminal 28 to form the electrical connection. Thus, the pin portion 31 of the female terminal is connected to a first circuit board 33, while the pin portion 20 of the male terminal is connected to a second circuit board 34 such that the first circuit board 33 and the second circuit board 34 are electrically connected to each other.
The prior art electrical connector still has the following drawbacks. The electrical connection is created according to the elastic contact of the elastically moved elastic arm of the male terminal 17. However, the levels of the contacts 19 may be different from one another if the assembled depths of the male terminals 17 are different from one another. In addition, the skew caused in the pressing process or caused by the collision also makes the levels of the contacts of the terminals different.